Machine Man

Machine Man
© 2009 Max Barry
277 pages

Who knew crushing your limbs in the industrial machinery at work could be so addictive?  When Charlie Neumann accidentally crushed his leg in a fit of absentmindedness and was fitted with state-of-the-art prosthesis, he could only stare in dismay. This was state of the art?  Combing his engineering mind, his company's resources, and his ability to fixate on a project beyond all reason, Neumann promptly built a better leg. Then, realizing it would work better as a pair, he decided to recreate his accident and crush the other leg.  When his employer, a research-and-production firm caught on, they didn't fire him and sue him for abusing his insurance and using company materials to make himself a pair of super-legs. Instead, they promoted him.   This has potential, they said. An entire product line. Better Legs! Better Skin! Better Eyes!   We can rebuild him, WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY!

Too bad they were kind of evil.  Machine Man is the fourth book by satirist Max Barry, who has previously had fun with novels mocking corporate culture and advertising.  Machine Man definitely has humor, primarily in its main characters' utter obliviousness to social cues and his often deadpan responses,  but it's not absurdist fiction like that that PG Wodehouse. Instead the humor softens what otherwise might be a somewhat horrifying tale of a man who serially butchers himself, awakening the interest in a morally dubious company and empowering them to get even more dubious. Things get rather out of end, with one of the endgame chapters involving a fight to the death between two cyborgs, both of whom are increasingly schizophrenic.  One character winds up as a brain-in-a-box, which takes us to "I have no mouth and I must scream" territory.  While I'm labeling this science fiction, given the contents and transhumanist interest,   I don't know if the nerve interfaces mentioned here were based on any then-current research;  the first that I know of was announced in 2016.

All in all,  I enjoyed this. Of course, I like the author -- I've read most of his previous novels, albiet ten years ago.  I have a certain fascination with the idea of 'augmented humanity', even as most of my being recoils at the idea of it. Barry's combination of humor, emotional drama, and the able use of the company as an amiable villain made it a swift and engaging read. 

Related:
Latest developments in prosthetics, from The Independent. 

Syrup

Syrup

© 1999 Max(x) Barry

294 pages

I've been enjoying Max Barry these past few weeks. His funny novels set in corporate America -- sometimes exploring speculative scenarios -- have not yet failed to disappoint, and Syrup was another en joyable read. This one has been described as a "cult classic" and is currently being made into a film. The book has a lightening pace: unlike his other books and unlike most books (including thrillers), Syrup's lead characters enjoy very little downtime. Main character "Scat" -- who has given himself a new name appropriate for pursuing a career in marketing --begins the novel with a million-dollar idea: a soda with the brand name of Fukk. After gushing about the idea to his roommate Sneaky Pete (who, we are told, you should never ask "Why are you called Sneaky Pete?), he runs off to the Coca-Cola company to meet Pete's friend 6. After hearing 6's name, Scat believes he has found a kindred soul, and despite her claims that she is not interested in men, he falls in love with her while attempting to sell the idea.

The idea is a sensation: the Coca-Cola company loves it. Everyone knows that the soda with an eyebrow-raising name sold in a black can will be the hit of the summer -- including Sneaky Pete, who trademarks the name while Scat is ignoring 6's claims that she prefers women. Oops. Scat was almost worth $3 million, but he is just an idea man -- he fails when putting ideas into action. After he returns to his home to yell at his roommate Sneaky Pete (and to leave after realizing that Pete owns the lease and can't be kicked out), he is approached by 6. Sneaky Pete is Coca-Cola's new golden boy, and he's after her job: 6 wants Scat's help. Thus begins the plot-driving conflict, which unfolds over a period of several months (the interludes are never mentioned) while Scat and 6 frantically fight to keep their new positions at Coca-Cola against Sneaky Pete's attempts to undermine them and take credit for his ideas -- culminating in their attempting to film a movie that will serve as a feature-length advertisement for Coca-Cola. The conflict is not resolved until the book's final pages, keeping readers' eyes firmly on the page.

Syrup is not only a funny thriller, but an interesting peek into the world of marketing. Barry confirms what a professor of mine -- who worked in marketing until making the switch to geography -- said about the profession, that it was "organized lying". According to the book's "About the Author", Barry worked in marketing before beginning work on his novels. He sprinkles marketing "tips" into the story, like "You don't have to claim a product is healthy: just insinuate it." and "Spread the most popular items throughout the grocery store so customers pass by as large a range of goods as possible. Shift the location of goods regularly to keep customers wandering." Barry also has Scat talk about the marketing business, where "perception is reality". I suspect that most people reading a book like Syrup are already familiar with the fact that advertisers use every gimmick they can to sell an item, but how far they will go is still surprising.

This is a definite recommendation if you want a fun read that focuses on story and not so much on giving the reader gratuitous anything -- except for snarkiness.

Company

Company

© 2006 Max Barry

338 pages

I chose to read Max Barry's Company based on how much I enjoyed Jennifer Government, and I'm happy to say that Barry did not fail to entertain here. Company is the story of Stephen Jones, Zephyr Holdings' newest employee. Jones is hired to help market "training packages", and he believes this is what the company is for. Imagine his surprise when he finds out that only his department handles this, and further still that his department sells those packages to other departments within Zephyr. His every attempt to find out what the rest of the company does is stymied: even after he barges into his department chief's office to respectfully inquire about the issue, he is shot down. Repeatedly, he is told to leave it be -- no one else knows, and they don't need to know.

Although Jones is our leading character and protagonist, he is by far from the only character: Barry frequently writes from the perspective of others and sometimes using his own voice. What quickly emerges is a company in which the employees do what they're told simply because it's a living -- where little make senses and where Senior Management does nothing to explain anything. When Senior Management does poke its nose into the story line, they generally do so to make drastic changes to the company that make their employees even more confused and unhappy. The company is quite chaotic: departments vie for power and attempt to destroy one another. While everyone else is accustomed to this, Jones refuses to take "Nevermind it," as an answer, leading him to make a frantic run for the offices of the CEO while being chased by security guards. What Jones will change his entire view of the company, and it will for a time put him in a position of absolute power. What could possibly be so dramatic?

You'll have to read and see. I found the book to be very entertaining, at times reminding me of The Office and of a particular John Cleese clip. Not only is it an entertaining novel by itself, but it functions also as a criticism of corporate culture.

Jennifer Government

Jennifer Government

© 2003 Max Barry

321 pages

A number of years ago some friends and I began playing the online game "NationStates" in which users create a nation and make daily decisions to shape its progress (or descent). The game was created by the author of Jennifer Government, Max Barry, partially as a way to amuse himself and partially as a way to advertise the book. I checked Jennifer Government out back in the day but never got around to finishing it -- but after returning to NationStates a month or so ago, I decided to look into Barry's other work once more. Jennifer Government is set in a world where the worst nightmares of some and the greatest dreams of others have come to life -- a world in which the government exists only to say "Hey, play nice!" and consumerism is god. Companies are more powerful than countries, especially as they join coalitions and sport private armies -- one of which is the NRA. Jennifer Government's world is one in which scenes like this can happen:

"Nine-eleven Emergency, how can I help you?"

"I need an ambulance. Quickly, a girl has been shot at the Chadstone Wal-Mart mall."

"Certainly, sir. Can you tell me the girl's name?"

"Hayley. Hayley something. Please, come straight away."

"Sir, I need to know if the victim is part of our register," the operator said. "If she's one of our clients, we'll be there within a few minutes. Otherwise I'm happy to recommend -- "

"I need an ambulance!" he shouted, and it was only when water splashed on [Buy's] hand that he realized he had started to cry. "I'll play for it, I don't care, just come!"

"Do you have a credit card, sir?"

"Yes! Send someone now!"

"As soon as I confirm your ability to pay, sir. This will only take a few seconds."

- p. 33

The girl -- shot by a Nike-paid assassin along with thirteen other teenagers trying to buy the new Nike shoes in an operation planned to boost sales, dies as Buy struggles to communicate his credit-card number to the dispatcher. There are other scenes like this when the utter callousness of Barry's world makes itself known -- like when Buy goes to an NRA store to purchase a gun and asks for the kind of pistol that might be best for suicide. The clerk cheerfully recommends a certain kind, seemingly oblivious to the fact that this man is planning on taking his life. People have been reduced by the corporate world to the point that they take their last names from their place of employ, and children take theirs from whichever company sponsors their school -- as the government is so reduced in power that it can only commence investigations as long as a private citizen is willing to pay.

Although the novel is a light-action thriller with some comedic aspects, it doubles as a critique of consumer culture now and what libertarianism might allow. The novel begins with Nike's "promotional campaign", at which point we are introduced to a host of characters: Hack Nike, a downtrodden cubicle-dweller who is tricked into doing the job (and who can't, so he subtracts it to the Police); Buy Mitsui, a French stock broker who moved to Australia (part of the United States, as are the Americas, India, Polynesia, and Oceania), who inadvertently causes the death of a young girl when he gives her money to buy the new Nike shoes, shoes she will soon die for; and Jennifer Government, the advertiser-turned-federal-agent who attempts to get to the bottom of the murders -- not only for the sake of the young people murdered, but because she harbors a vendetta against the man who engineered all of this, John Nike.

The book generally reads rather quickly, and the setting of course is quite interesting. I think I shall be reading more of Max Barry.